International Union of Painters and Allied Trades DISTRICT COUNCIL 46 PLEASE VISIT US AT WWW. IUPAT.ON.CA Bruno Mandic Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer Locals 557, 1487, 1630, 1819, 1891, 2005 132 Toro Road, Toronto, ON M3J 2A9 T: 416-630-9604 F: 416-630-3400 Toll: 800-668-1823 Satellite Offices Local 114 205A - 1724 Bath Road, Kingston, K7M 4Y2 613-384-4810 Local 200 880 Lady Ellen Place, G6, Ottawa, K1Z 5L9 613-722-6293 Local 205/1795 1430 Osprey Dr., SS 71, Ancaster, L9G 4V5 905-304-0001 Local 1494 631 Pitt Street West, Windsor, N9A 5M5 519-256-8050 Local 1590 1151 Confederation Street, Sarnia, N7S 3Y5 519-337-3791 Local 1671 777 Red River Road, Thunder Bay, P7B 1J9 807-345-2681 Local 1824 124 Sydney St.S., #104, Kitchener, N2G 3V2 519-744-4714 Local 1904 68 Dennis Street, #3, Sault Ste.Marie, P6A 2W9 705-946-1904 Painters  Drywall Finishers  Glaziers  Plasterers  Signwriters  EIFS-Stucco  Hazardous Materials  Industrial So how do all of these international trade agreements impact construction in Ontario? The short answer is that our domestic construction industry sources products and materials from all over the globe as the world increasingly becomes flat and the impacts, accordingly, are potentially enormous. Case in point: look at how quickly the Trump steel and aluminum tariffs affected domestic construc- tion pricing in the fall. I am told that aggregate project pricing increased by upwards of seven per cent on P3s, for example, and we are as uncertain today about who actually bears that cost as we were in March 2018 when Trump dropped the bomb. What scares me even more is that the feds guesstimated that only about 18 per cent of large businesses and some four per cent of medium-sized businesses were actively developing contingency plans. That construction industry culture of ‘ready-shoot-aim’ is of course not sustainable, particularly when the construction landscape is increas- ingly characterized by uncertainty. Have we forgotten that for several months post-March 2018, some trades affected by the tariffs were advising the GCs to whom they were pricing work that their tender prices had as little as a two-hour expiration? That was unthinkable in the construction industry at this time last year. I wish I could tell you with any degree of confidence that this will all blow over one day soon, and our domestic construction industry will regain the stability it once had respecting cost, but I don’t believe that for one minute. The fact is that the changes taking place in the realm of international trade agreements are complex and very often overwhelming. And nobody understands better than constructors that supply chain pricing wasn’t ever actually bulletproof. Bottom line. We need to take a page from the Boy Scouts handbook and “be prepared.” Respectfully, John G. Mollenhauer TCA President & CEO PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 8 | Builders' Digest Quarter 3 2018